The Long-Awaited Tom Sawyer Play!

One of the big traditions at our elementary school is that in the fall of fifth grade you read Tom Sawyer, then you perform the play with your class.  There was a fair amount of discussion about whether or not this would happen last fall when Covid was wreaking havoc, and the faculty decided not to put on the play.

Eliza was disappointed of course, but it worked out in the end because the teachers found a way to perform the play safely and when the number of Covid cases were much smaller: they saved it for the end of the year, then performed it outside and limited the number of people attending to two per student.  This had the added benefits of a mountain backdrop for several scenes and having enough space that several pieces could be left in place so the kids had less work to do setting up each scene.

The kids were allowed to request to play a certain part and Eliza was so excited to get her first choice, the part of Huck Finn.  (I think it worked in her favor that her already small class only has 6 boys in it, so several girls played boy parts.)  Part of the reason Eliza wanted this part was that Jack had the part - now it's a legacy!  At some point in the month leading up to the play, everyone in the family helped Eliza practice her lines:

 

Nobody was allowed to use the school's costume pieces so it worked out well that Eliza already had a pair of overalls, and she borrowed one of her brother's shirts.  We ordered a cheap straw hat from Amazon, which Eliza started deconstructing almost as soon as she opened it.  It turned out great!

She was so excited when the big day arrived, and Suz and I were happy to be in the audience, front and center.  The trickiest part of performing outside was that the kids had to really project since they weren't using mics but they all did a great job and we understood them very well.  I was really impressed with the performance, and I think Eliza needs to do more acting in the future!

Here are a few of Eliza's scenes:

Mother's Day

I had a really nice Mother's Day.  Luke and Eliza had sweet gifts for me, which they'd made at school: Eliza decorated a small pot that she'd planted flower seeds, and Luke had a booklet he'd filled out and a popsicle stick picture frame he decorated.  The booklet was full of hilarious and sweet Luke-ness!  Ben and the kids also signed a card for me, which was really sweet!

Luke described this picture as Mom (pink) being mad because Ben (red)
gave Luke (blue) a machete.  Also, there's an asteroid.

Apparently I threaten my kids, "Clean your room
or face the spray bottle!" and forget to cook the green beans.
I'll work on those things.

We went to Church in the morning, I attended a special Relief Society meeting at a woman's house, then Ben helped the kids with lunch while I took a nap.  I felt like I was walking better that day than I had previously so I requested that we go spend some time outside.  We drove up to Big Springs Park and walked along the path for a little while, stopped at a stream crossing to hang out and take pictures, then turned around and walked back.  It was so nice to be out in nature - something I hadn't done since my accident!

Back at the house, Ben grilled teriyaki chicken for dinner and the girls put together mango sticky rice for dessert and it was wonderful.  I'm so glad that I get to be a Mom and that I have this awesome family!

Cat Goes to Prom

Cat's school usually has several dances/stomps each year but hasn't had any this year because of Covid - except for prom. Covid restrictions in Utah were definitely easing by early May but since prom had to be planned months in advance, they took the middle-ground approach of having a prom, but inviting only the Seniors to participate in order to keep the crowd smaller.

The Juniors were not happy about this.  So they went rogue and planned their own prom at an indoor/outdoor venue - and they invited the Sophomore class to join them.  Cat isn't 16 yet so she wasn't allowed to attend the dance with a date, but found a group of friends to go with instead.  The group included 5 girls and 2 boys.

I love that they all had the attitude of keeping it on the small and cheap side, giving themselves room to go bigger their Junior and Senior years if they want to.  Cat borrowed a dress, we did her nails, hair, and makeup at home, and she wore my jewelry.  The only major purchase was her shoes, which she'll be able to use again.  For the "day date" part of prom, the group walked around the (free) BYU Museum of Art, picked up lunch at Chick-fil-A, and did some painting at a park in Orem.  After separating and getting ready, they met up for pictures at a park near the Timpanogos Temple where the father of someone in the group took pictures for them.  Then they drove to the dance together.  After the dance, Cat was home by her 11:00 curfew.

Cat considered doing hair/makeup with a friend but I'm so glad she decided to let us take care of her at home instead.  It was so fun to help her get ready!  She wasn't sure about the dark eye makeup but it turned out great.  Eliza had fun hanging out with us too, and took the opportunity to do her own makeup, with no hesitation to go dark anywhere, haha.

She looked beautiful and she was so happy and excited to have a fun day with friends and go to the dance that night!  She danced the whole time - with her shoes on (for the first 10 minutes) - and was sore for days afterward from using dancing muscles she doesn't use when playing soccer.  She came home tired but beaming - she'd had an absolute blast.  As a mom, I love that her level of fun seemed to meet her expectations!

Jack's Birthday

Jack has been looking forward to his 13th birthday for a long time, for one big reason: he will be able to watch PG-13 movies.  So it was appropriate that Jack celebrated with lots of PG-13 adventure stories and movies.

These were the gifts he recieved from Ben and me, along with the promise of finding some goggles to wear on the go-kart Ben and Jack plan on building.

Everyone had things going on that night so we celebrated in the morning with gift-opening and a doughnut cake - it worked out pretty well that that was what he requested!

New Kong & Godzilla action figures!

On the night of his birthday, Jack went to the Romeo & Juliet cast party.  The real celebration began the next day: he and I watched Jurassic World in the morning, he began watching the Harry Potter movies al the way through in the afternoon, then Ben took Jack and two friends to see Godzilla vs. Kong that night.  By the end of the weekend Jack had gotten through the fourth HP movie, and watched a total of 3 PG-13 movies.

I think he likes being 13.

One Year

As the anniversary of Grammy's passing approached, I knew I wanted to mark the day but wasn't sure how.  I did have a project I was working on, which I finished the night before: a quilt from her t-shirts and scraps of her fabric or fabrics that made me think of her.

I was kind of stumped about what to do with the family, but it turned out to be a great day, with Suz's help.  The first thing happened because Cat wanted to find pictures of her and Grammy that she could post on Instagram.  We ended up spending a long time looking at scrapbooks, our photo album, and even pictures online.  I loved it.

Later, Ben and Suz came over for a Smash Party.  It was similar to something Suz did last summer, writing down frustrations on clay pigeons and then shooting them out of the air.  We didn't go shooting this year as the anniversary fell on a Sunday, but we put an old drop cloth out in the yard and smashed the clay pigeons with hammers and a baseball bat.  We wrote a range of frustrations on the discs, from "wet socks" to "Calculus" to "hatred" to "Covid" to "Grammy's death."

Suz rounded out the party with some of Grammy's favorites: Haribo peach gummies and Dr. Pepper.  It was a great way to have a little fun, think of Grammy, and release some stress.

That night around bedtime I felt inspired to do what turned out to be the most therapeutic activity of the day: I sat on my bed and typed up a long letter to Mom, talking to her as if she was in the room.  I caught her up on our lives and told her all the things that were on my mind.  I think I'll do that every year.

The Chicken Chronicles 4.30.21

It's fun to bring the chickens scraps from the kitchen, especially
when it's food they like.  Bread heals are a favorite.

I wonder what they thought of the Easter eggs in the yard?

Begging for food at the back door.

Chickens 2.0...

Bo & Henrietta

Buddy the Blue Pteradactyl

So cute in their little house (bin).

Romeo & Juliet: Love is a Battlefield

When Jack needed to choose a new class to replace the Cross Country practice period he had during the first term, we tried hard to get him into an art class.  He's really into drawing these days and hoped to be able to develop that skill more at school.  Unfortunately - or fortunately - he couldn't get into any of the art classes and ended up in drama instead.  I thought this would be a good back-up option for Jack, since he's had fun with a couple of theater things in the past.

He seemed to enjoy it from the beginning, with fun improv exercises and cool assignments such as sketching out and then filming a 10-second clip from Star Wars at home in a creative way.  I'm sure that being in the class also helped motivate Jack to audition for the school musical this Spring - and might have helped the director decide to cast him.

The play was Romeo and Juliet: Love is a Battlefield.  They used the original Shakespeare text, but the play was set in the 1980's with the Capulets dressed as preps and the Montagues dressed as punks, and there were 80's musical numbers peppered throughout.  Jack was in the ensemble with the Capulets and didn't have a huge time commitment for rehearsals.  Starting in early February, he rehearsed for a few hours every Friday afternoon, helped with set-building a few Saturdays, and only had a few midweek rehearsals until tech week.

We were excited when performances began and we could finally see what Jack and the cast had been working on - and they did great!  It looked like they were all having a lot of fun and really got into it.  The costumes turned out really well, and the outdoor performing space they built because of Covid was fantastic.

I saw the play twice: I attended the opening performance, which Cat also watched with the entire boys' soccer team.  Then, the whole family attended the Saturday matinee.  Jack was in a few of the big numbers, but this is the only video I have where you can actually see him:

I took this picture because the soccer team got really into the play, which is
what the director was hoping for.  Here I think the Friar is singing "True Colors."
The team cheered, they swayed, they made jokes, and Cat loved being in the middle of it.

Jack's first curtain call, opening night.

"Jack, strike a pose!"

The lighting was much better at the day-performance on Saturday with the family.  Just look for the boy in the pink pants!

From the finale, courtesy of the cast slideshow.

I thought Romeo's punk look was pretty cool.

Suz and Whit attended with us and even brought Jack a candy bouquet!

Jack really had a lot of fun being a part of this production, and made some new friends.  He was excited to hang out with them and get froyo after the Saturday night show, and had a really fun time at the cast party.  The director awarded Jack the Cluckspeare Award, after he brought Felix to one of the painting/building days at the school (and she pooped on the gym floor).